Category Archives: European cinema

I have been looking for host body

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V16K6yMWprk&]

I viewed Enki Bilal‘s film Immortal (starring Charlotte Rampling) over the weekend and liked it, although story-wise it’s not a very good film. It rendered the graphic novels which I was so crazy about when I was in my early twenties quite beautifully: the sense of futurism mixed with decay, high tech mingled with dirt which you will also find in Tanino Liberatore‘s RanXerox. The feeling of loneliness and of alienation, the wide open spaces and futuristic, multi-level cities, the cast of humans mixed with “non humans” make for interesting viewing. However, if you can spare the time and the money, go for the original graphic novels.

In praise of non-eventfulness

Tomorrow is Brigitte Lahaie 52nd birthday. While researching for this post I stumbled upon the following clip which is a perfect example of the non-eventfulness I appreciate in some films. The first time the concept of non-eventfulness took shape was when I saw the extended scene in La Maman et la putain where one of the female protagonists puts a record on and listens to it in real-time (I believe this actually happens twice in that same film).

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZzV7HLSYpk]

Unidentified clip of early Lahaie (when she was still a brunette)

Please notice how the food Lahaie is about to eat, gazes back at her in the clumsy editing.

The most powerful image of Lahaie I know of is the one where she is photographed standing topless sort of straddling a Great Dane dog. Here.

And here is her Google gallery.

Happy birthday Brigitte.

Happy birthday Laura

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGNvAsImwn8]

The Laura Gemser interview from the Alex Cox documentary “A Hard Look”

What a pleasure to hear Alex “Repo Man” Cox’s voice again. Alex was responsible for a substantial part of my 1980s and 1990s film education with his show Moviedrome. Laura turns 67 today, let’s hear it for Laura. “A Hard Look” is a documentary tv film about the Emmanuelle movies, looking at their making as well as their social and cultural impact. The Emanuelle films‘ primary interest is paratextual: its poster art, the scenery, the OSTs, the odd characters.

EXPRMNTL

XPRMNTL 4, Knokke

EXPRMNTL 4, poster by Pierre Alechinsky

EXPRMNTL, also known as the Knokke Experimental Film Festival and Festival du Film Expérimental de Knokke-le-Zoute was the largest Belgian festival dedicated to experimental cinema. The festival succeeded the Brussels Experimental Film Festival (1947 and 1958) and was held under the EXPRMNTL moniker in 1963 (EXPRMNTL 3), 1967 (EXPRMNTL 4) and 1974 (EXPRMNTL 5). It was conceived and curated by Jacques Ledoux and the Cinémathèque royale de Belgique in Knokke-le-Zoute. It was organized five times between 1949 and 1974.

There is no equivalent of its kind today, except perhaps for the programmers at Cinema Nova, and the people at MuHKA cinema and other film museums in Belgium. Another worthwhile film festival is the Brussels International Festival of Fantasy Film.